This graphic design portfolio has been created by So Yeon Kim from USA. The most attractive part about the brochure design is the folding and cutting and then typography. Below are awesome PDF files and e-books that you can use to widen your design knowledge, or at least, brush up on the basics. Practical Responsive Typography Typography still proves to be one of the most crucial elements in design, especially if you want to make your message crystal clear.
Creating stunning graphic design portfolios is a task open to interpretation. There's no one single way to lay a portfolio out. In a way, that's good as it means you're free to experiment and showcase your creativity when designing your website. But because it opens up so many avenues, it can create a tyranny of choice making it difficult to find the perfect direction for you.
It can be useful to look at the graphic design portfolios created by your peers, not only to get inspiration from their work, but also to discover the self promotion methods they've used. Looking at those portfolios can help you decide what you do and don't like, which will clarify what you want yours to achieve.
If you need even more ideas, head over to our more comprehensive list of design portfolios that's sure to inspire you.
01. Alex Coven
Alex Coven, in his own words, “wears three hats”, as a freelance graphic designer, letterer and front end developer based in Chicago, USA. He illustrates those hats literally on the homepage, which is a brilliantly simple way to convey the depth of his skills and experience.
Scroll down on his site to see his work, and across on each one for more information about that project. Clever use of colour overlays again acts as a simple device to keep things distinctive and interesting.
02. Rafael Kfouri
Rafael Kfouri is an award-winning graphic designer currently working for AlmapBBDO. He previously worked at Wieden+Kennedy Portland.
The one-page portfolio site is a tricky thing to pull off, but Kfouri succeeds well in giving his colourful and impactful visuals – including single images and collages – room to breathe. Giving them almost the entire width of the screen, with just a couple of slim sidebars for context, allows visitors to enjoy and appreciate the wide scope of his work at a leisurely pace.
There’s only the barest of information about each project, and to be honest, we’d like to have seen more. But as a way of showcasing graphic eye-candy smartly and with minimal (if any) clicks needed to get to the goodies, this portfolio offers a lot of inspiration.
03. Heather Shaw
With almost 20 years' experience in design, Heather Shaw designs brochures, menus, business cards, books, annual reports, Powerpoint and Keynote presentations, responsive websites, applications… anything her clients need, in short. And her impressive portfolio site marshals all this diverse work with simplicity and elegance.
Overlaying photos of each project with a block colour provides an element of visual consistency. Meanwhile, the big, bold typography and simple but effective design make it all very easy to navigate.
04. Stefanie Bruckler
Based in New York, Stefanie Bruckler is an Austrian designer and illustrator with a particular interest in branding and editorial design. Passionate about building cohesive and strong brands as well as typography and packaging, she’s applied a touch of old-fashioned elegance to her website. Its minimalist, grid-based layout, muted colour palette and restrained use of type are all enclosed within a fixed, single-line frame.
05. Peter Komierowski
Peter Komierowski is a visual designer working in Vancouver, British Columbia who specialises in illustration, branding and identity design, and interface design. With many high-profile clients, including The Huffington Post, NBA, Telus, and YouTube, there’s a lot to fit in here.
Komierowski’s homepage takes a quite radical approach, featuring just a small number of logo designs, surrounded by acres of white space. It’s a strategy born of (justified) confidence in the high quality of his designs, and it works brilliantly.
06. Tobias Van Schneider
Tobias van Schneider is a multidisciplinary designer and creative director born in Germany, raised in Austria and currently living and working in New York. Focused on branding and interactive design, he’s had some big-name clients including Red Bull, BMW, Google, Wacom, Sony, Toyota and Ralph Lauren.
When you’re working at this level, the work tends to be beautifully photographed. Schneider takes full advantage of that, with a portfolio design that contains plenty of beautiful images. Plenty of lovely typography ties everything together – there is an unusually large amount of text here for a graphic design portfolio – and overall this site succeeds in conveying the breadth of Schneider’s experience and the depth of his work.
07. Grant Burke
Grant Burke heads up an Ottawa-based branding and web design studio specialising in logo design, brand identity and illustration. In the past he’s worked both as an in-house designer for large corporations and at an agency.
Like van Schneider's, Burke's homepage proves that you can use a lot of text in a portfolio, however if you scroll down or click on Portfolio in the top menu you’re greeted by a strong selection of work in a picture-grid format.
Hover over each square for a brief summary, and click through to a full case study. These serve as a model for sharing the right amount of information about a project on a portfolio site; not too little that it leaves you hanging, not too much that it overwhelms.
08. Alessandro Scarpellini
Italian designer Alessandro Scarpellini has worked for a wide range of clients around the world in the fields of art direction, branding and visual identity, magazines and packaging design. He’s also the curator of Visual Journal, an inspirational blog about the best in branding and graphic design, so you’d expect him to know a thing or two about curating great work. And his portfolio doesn’t disappoint.
Graphic Design Portfolio Pdf 2015
There’s a real air of sophistication to its design, which showcases examples of his work in a restrained sideshow and offers a personal biography in bold type below. Comprehensive it is not, but you certainly get a clear sense of this creative’s personality and approach to his design work from this minimalist portfolio.
09. Nicolas Paries
Nicolas Paries is an interactive art director who’s been working since 2008 with premium brands such as Chanel, Lancôme, Dior and Nespresso. The layout of his portfolio site is quite original, and the graphic effects as you scroll down are visually spectacular and hugely impressive. In short, this portfolio website is a real one-off.
10. Jennifer Heintz
Jennifer Heintz is a designer and illustrator living in Boston, USA. She was creative director of the Northeastern University Political Review, and is currently founding partner at creative studio, Self Aware.
Careful curation and imaginative presentation is paramount for Heintz. Her site scores highly on both, with a great use of colour, delightfully smooth scrolling and a snazzy eye motif.
These work together to make each individual project much more enticing than it might have seemed on a more cookie-cutter site.
Related articles:
As a graphic designer, you may be showcasing your work with separate PDFs on your website or blog. That strategy is a good option for when prospective clients or employers come to you. But, what about when you want to reach out to them? Do you have something to send so they don't have to take the extra step of visiting your site?
If you'd like to create a high-quality brochure-style piece showcasing your best work, consider creating a single PDF. Most (if not all) graphic software programs can export a design as a high-quality, high-resolution PDF that can be emailed to anyone you want to demonstrate your work to.
Selecting Work for Your Portfolio
As with any portfolio, the most important decision is which pieces to include. Consider these tips:
- Focus on the types of projects you want to do. If you have a specific focus, such as book design, select the pieces that best represent it. If you're early in your career and don’t have a focus (or don’t want one), choose a variety of pieces that you enjoyed working on.
- Choose your best work. The goal isn't to show everything you've ever done. Stick with a “less is more” philosophy, choosing a small selection of pieces that highlight a particular style, technique, or industry.
- Be current. Design trends and technology change quickly, so use your most recent work as much as possible, as well as pieces that show you know the latest techniques.
- Include personal projects. Don't think you have to include only paid projects. Personal projects show that you have a passion for design. Further, if you're just starting out, you may only have design school projects to showcase. Allow the work itself, rather than the client or publication name, to impress viewers.
- Show the process. Consider showing the creative stages you went through when creating each design. Doing so can illustrate your depth of understanding and mastery of design techniques and concepts.
![Graphic Graphic](https://nbpdblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/4jodieslowski_pdf_portfolio1.jpg)
Your portfolio should include between 10 and 20 examples. Ten pieces are enough to show your abilities, and more than 20 can begin to feel scattered and overwhelming.
Organizing the Portfolio
For each piece you've chosen, consider adding the following information:
- Client name
- Industry
- Project description
- Your role in the project (such as designer or art director)
- Where the work appeared
- Any awards, publications, or recognition related to the project
Along with the project details, you could include some helpful information for viewers:
- Cover letter
- Bio
- Mission statement
- Other background information
- Client or industry list
- Services list
- Contact information
Consider hiring or teaming up with a professional writer to prepare your content, as it will be the 'voice' of your portfolio. If you need your pieces photographed, also consider a professional.
Designing the Portfolio
Treat the design process as you would during a client project. Come up with several concepts and tweak them until you're happy with the result. Create a consistent layout and style throughout. Using the grid system may be helpful here. Remember that the PDF design is just as much a showcase of your talent as the work within it.
Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress are great options for creating a multi-page layout, and Illustrator works well for graphics and text-heavy freeform layouts. Think of the flow of content: start with a quick overview, and then go into project examples. Finish with additional text or contact information.
Creating the PDF
Once your design is complete, export it to PDF. Be sure to save the original file so you can add and edit projects later. One thing to think about here is file size, as you will be emailing this document often. Play around with the compression options in your software until you reach a happy medium between quality and file size. You can also use Adobe Acrobat Professional to piece together several pages of design and to reduce the size of the final PDF.
Using the PDF
![Graphic Graphic](https://fbcd.co/images/products/6de531eec57782c51cbcc1c3b234ace4_resize.jpg)
You can email the PDF directly to prospective clients, or print or display it on a tablet at interviews.
Graphic Design Pdf Portfolio Size
Be sure to update your PDF portfolio often with your newest, greatest work.